Traditional marketing strategies came well after utilizing social media to market Taylor Swift’s Wonderstruck fragrance. On Tuesday night, CEW’s Women & Men in Beauty Series “Formula for Success” hosted a panel discussion featuring Givaudan’s Olivier Gillotin and Elizabeth Arden’s Kathy Widmer and Ron Rolleston (from left in above photo) who shared some fun facts on promoting Taylor Swift’s best selling scent.

• Social media is now the #1 celebrity news source, not People or Entertainment Tonight, as before.
• Arden is a huge believer in digital because it offers unique marketing opportunities. With Taylor Swift, Arden moved forward full-force and had the team go out there and just try things, to see what worked. The idea was to keep “it” going, keep the conversation going.
• At the time Taylor was signed by Arden she had 20 million followers on social media. Now she has more like 35 million fans, who live in her social media space with minute-to-minute social media updates. For example, when Justin Bieber says goodnight to his fans, all 29,000 “Beliebers” say goodnight back.
• Arden doesn’t make the Taylor Swift experience come alive, Taylor does. So Arden had to create programs the star would be happy to endorse, including gifting, sampling, behind-the-scenes videos, and “meet Taylor” opportunities. It’s easy to say, “Get her to tweet about it!” but Taylor has to protect her brand/image/integrity and do what’s authentic.
• Die-hard Taylor Swift fans (Swifties) are interested in promoting/expanding her brand. They’re advocates and want to be the first to get all the updates and information and are eager to be the ones sharing things first.